This is the story of people who choose to become Americans. They come from around the world at all ages. Some come alone, others being family, most leave people they love behind. Some come to study and work while others are refugees fleeing their countries. They add so much to our country. They bring new music, food, and language. They do many jobs. They study hard and eventually take a citizenship test to formally become American.
Written by an immigrant to the U.S. and illustrated by a refugee, this book is engaging and vibrant. It shares with children the many reasons people may come to live in the United States, emphasizing that they still remain part of their original culture, bringing those elements with them and not losing themselves in the process. The illustrations are full of diversity, capturing the many people from across the world coming to the United States to live.
Ideal to share in classes learning about citizenship and immigration. Appropriate for ages 5-7.
Tea Is Love by Adib Khorram, illustrated by Hanna Cha
Publisher: Dial Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: October 28, 2025
Reviewed from copy provided by publisher
ISBN: 9780593618530
Celebrate the joy of tea as it is shared around the world. The book shows the power of tea in families as memory and between friends as gifts. It looks at learning about tea in various ways. Tea can also be shared online, in large gatherings or quietly for just one or two. Throughout all the ways to drink and share tea though, it is love.
Through gentle poetic language, readers are invited to see tea as a universal pleasure and source of connection. This book, written by an award-winning author, is perfect for sharing aloud with very simple lines that are evocative. The illustrations, by a Caldecott Honor winner, have tea swirling across the pages in a variety of pots, cups and holders. She shares a vast array of cultures as the tea weaves new connections.
A delicious delight of a book. Appropriate for ages 3-5.
When Maggie is sent to the Midwatch Institute for Wayward Girls, she knows just the sort of place she is entering. She expects severe discipline, not much learning and pure dreariness. But the Institute is not like that at all. Behind that respectable front lies a school that trains girls in how to be spies, fight bad guys and solve mysteries. Soon Maggie and her class of new students are finding themselves learning to hide, speak German, fence and dance. When their class figures out a letter from a missing woman is actually a cry for help, they are placed on the case. They must figure out who is behind the disappearance and who a jewel thief discovered in their investigation is.
Set in a marvelous world of floating blimps combined with turn of the century attitudes and technologies, this book brings an entire city to life for the reader. All of the characters are fascinating, including the adults who are far more roundly crafted than many other children’s books. The various ways out of the Institute and into the city add to the wonder and whimsy of the book.
Full of action and lots of disobedient and clever girls, this story is smashing. Appropriate for ages 8-12.
The fourth book in the Nevermoor series has Morrigan discovering that her mother is actually from Nevermoor and was part of a very wealthy family. Morrigan is invited to meet her mother’s family, the Darlings, but things don’t go perfectly at their first meeting. Still, she continues to be in touch with them as her relationship with her mentor falls apart due to both of them having kept large secrets from one another. At a Darling wedding, Morrigan finds herself in the midst of a murder investigation where she and her friends may just be the only ones still searching for the true murderer. She must also find time to continue her studies to be a Wundersmith, one of the big secrets she is keeping from everyone.
After many delays in its publication, there is such joy in returning to the world of Nevermoor and the magic delights that dwell there. In this novel, there is plenty of darkness woven throughout. Readers will be able to figure out some of the mysteries and lies ahead of Morrigan while other reveals will surprise. With a monster, a murder and Morrigan, this book has plenty to keep fans happy.
If you haven’t tried this children’s fantasy series yet, this fourth book just adds to the reasons to read it soon. Appropriate for ages 9-12.
Waking Brain Cells 